Preparing Competent English Teachers for Young
Learners
Ruruh Mindari
To meet the need of
young learners' English education at present, teacher educators must pay
serious attention and work hard to prepare competent English teachers for young
learners. This effort is necessary due to the fact that there are many English
teachers in primary schools who were not specifically prepared to teach English
to young learners. As a result, the expected English proficiency of the pupils
is not attained. Teaching English to young learners is not as simple as
it seems. Aside from the appropriate English proficiency, there are other
important aspects that must be known and possessed by the teacher. Those
aspects cover the nature of children, their cognitive development stages,
language acquisition, children's strategies in learning another language, and
techniques of teaching English to children. In addition, there are still some
other requirements, such as teacher's appropriate manner and attitude in class. This paper aims at
leading us to see that there are many related things that must be provided in
preparing competent English teachers for young learners. At the same time, it
also shares what has been done and developed in the Faculty of Teacher Training
and Pedagogy of Widya Mandala Catholic University
Surabaya.
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Mindari, R. (2004, February). Preparing competent
English teachers for young learners. Paper presented at the national
conference on Teaching English to Young Learners: Why and How,
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